Virtual Discussion
Counter-Memories: Drew Faust & Viet Tanh Nguyen | Washington, D.C.
The conversation series Counter-Memories investigates a number of international monuments and places of remembrance whose symbolic significance often reveals a great deal about our relationship to history. The Goethe-Institutes in North America, the Goethe Pop Up Kansas City, the Thomas Mann House, and Onassis LA convene artists, activists, and intellectuals for illustrated virtual conversations around historical memory.
The episode will be released here at 2:00 pm (EST) on April 2, 2021.
About the Place of Remembrance
Vietnamese-American novelist Viet Tanh Nguyen and historian Drew Faust engage in a conversation about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. – a black granite wall engraved with the names of Americans who died in the Vietnam War, often cited among the most highly controversial armed conflicts in United States history. Departing from this specific monument, Faust and Ngyuen ask: Do war monuments not only commemorate but also victimize certain groups? What role can ‘counter–memories’ play in this dominant memorial landscape? Nguyen suggests that “while memory evolves, statues are fixed moments in time.” This episode sheds light on different ways of thinking about memory and the trauma of war today.